consumerist.com — Instead of textbooks, Hammond has been assigning journal articles and other reading materials that his students can check out from the library or download from the internet, a practice which, if every one of their professors did it, would save students (on average) $900 a year.
Jul 20, 2007 View in Crawl 4
tyrssonJul 21, 2007
That's not as always as easy as it seems. It takes quite a while to get a new edition of a text book together. In fields where the state of the art is changing, even a new text book can be out of date by as much as several years. Sometimes that's a problem. Sometimes it's not. It really just depends on the subject and the learning objectives.
Closed AccountJul 21, 2007
this guy isn't even close to being the first professor to do this.
fknehJul 21, 2007
This is news? Here in Canada I had a sociologist prof who didn't like text books so she put a collection of articles together and we just had to pay about 50 bucks for the right to copy the articles, way cheaper than text books. Next year she is going to make all her articles online, therefore they're free. Go hippies!
akaiiJul 21, 2007
$80? I wish.I paid $160 for my Chemistry book last semester ($200 with solutions manual, but I later returned it). Calculus - $150. Engeenering Design - $135.
Closed AccountJul 21, 2007
$900 a year lol $900 a semester is the correct amount.
emjaymjJul 21, 2007
Yeah I'm only attending an internationally renowned business school ranked ahead of schools like Harvard and Wharton by The Wall Street Journal.
pennvneffJul 22, 2007
This isn't really anything new, I had professors doing the exact same thing when I was an undergrad over 10 years ago. Not only do you get more interesting material to read, you save a grip of money by just going to the local Kinko to copy what you need.
seaoverflowingJul 22, 2007
During my long education life, I always paid high prices to books. And found it very nonsense. So this professor is a very thoughtful person, his students are very lucky!
in2deepJul 23, 2007
This is so cool....books have become a monopoly...they can charge any price they want for them and kids have to pay it...its ridiculous...good for this guy for setting an awesome example!
gahpaNov 25, 2007
I'm working on dropping them from most of the classes I teach as well. One class has been textbook free for two semesters (the paperback book I had been using had risen to $80, which is obscene). A second will be textbook free or at least textbook optional next semester.I imagine I will get down to two classes out of five using textbooks within a year. I have published a textbook, so I'm not exactly predisposed against using them. But $80 for a 200-page paperback book? There's no excuse for that.
mzmaker05Apr 19, 2008
<a class="user" href="http://textunion.com/">http://textunion.com/</a> is the place where I get my textbooks, for dirt cheap because it searches all over the web for them.You will fall in love w it I GUARANTEE
stn2001Apr 8, 2009
Some time you need books, some time you don't . Depends on professor! I follow these:1. Wait for 1 or 2 class and see if book is really required or not.2. If it is needed then use textbook price comparison web sites like <a class="user" href="http://www.TextBookHunting.com">http://www.TextBookHunting.com</a> to get value new/used textbooks.3. After course, sell the book immediately online on ebay or amazon.
LarryRossdaleSep 17, 2010
About time a professor spoke up. If you’re looking for cheap college books, you have to check out http://www.cheapesttextbooks.com/. I used to buy used from one of the stores at UDEL until I found this site, they had every textbook I needed for this semester for like half the price. Then, you can sell them back to the stores for the same price. Can’t beat it.
StevePotmanOct 29, 2010
Way to set an example! I really like the guts this professor has. I wish I had a professor like that. But until I do, I still find the cheapest textbooks available.
@ Larry... That is the best site to use for college textbooks. I use http://www.cheapesttextbooks.com all the time. I think it is the best college textbook site there is.
john_cooperNov 20, 2010
It is very important to search out the lowest price possible for your books.
College tuition has sky-rocketed, and the price of textbooks is far exceeding inflation in the United States.
The best way to save money on textbooks is to buy used. The best way to do this is to use Textbook Marketplaces.
You can find many good deals on textbooks by buying from other students who are listings their
books for sale once they are done using them.so why not try this site
http://www.sccbooks.com/ for cheapest textbooks